After
by J-Six
Summary: Years after graduation, Kaorin is getting harassed at work, is lonely, and is miserable in general. Then one day she has a chance encounter with someone from her past. Shoujoai.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: The first thing I want to say is this fic isn't aimed at kids. It's not a hentai, and I would never write one of those. However, it contains very adult elements, so I just want to warn young kids to go read something else. I also know this fic has some pretty serious parts. I know Azumanga is a pretty happy, go-lucky anime. However, I also feel there's a part of it that is rooted in reality, and in real life not everything is always happy, go-lucky. Background wise this fic takes place several years after they graduated. Anyways, please enjoy. If you read, please review.

Disclaimer: I don't own nor am I affiliated with Azumanga Daioh.

After

Chapter 1

A young woman, with the dark, diagonally cut hair that was close to shoulder length in the front, stood in front of a table. She swirled the cream into her black coffee with the stir stick until it was of a solid, light brown consistency. Kaori had already clocked out for the day, but sometimes she made herself a cup of coffee to drink on her walk home from the office. She hadn't done this for almost two months, however, but today she thought she could get away with it again.

Suddenly, a man stepped in front of her. He was tall, handsome, and had brownish, red hair. He pierced into her with his dark eyes.

"Ichiro," Kaori stated sounding terrified. "I thought you left."

"I came back because I forgot something. You know I can't leave anything not done around here."

"Well, I was just leaving," she spat off quickly. As she turned to leave, however, his strong, masculine hand clamped down on the short woman's shoulder like a vice grip holding her in place. Kaori gulped as she started to shake a bit.

"You're not leaving yet. Not until I give you some feedback anyways. I was really impressed with how hard you worked on the last project. I just want you to know I really appreciate the extra effort you put in around her," he said from behind her as he moved his right hand under the back of her skirt and started moving his fingers up the back of her thigh.

"Ppp…pp please stop," she begged pathetically.

"Ah come on, I know you just like playing hard to get. You must know how much I like that. Even though you've been working hard, I don't know how much harder you've been working than everyone else. Let's just go back to my place and have a little fun. Consider it over-time. You know evaluations are coming up next month. Maybe your performance ratings will go up a bit if you give the right effort." Finally, he loosened his grip, "So what do you say?"

"I have to go," Kaori said in a trembling voice as she quickly started walking off in the other direction.

"Fine, but when you want to move up the totem pole around here, you'll give me what I want," he stated coldly as if it was an undeniable outcome.

Finally after walking at a very speedy pace down several crowded city blocks, she stopped and looked back in the direction she came. After examining the faces of many of the other people on the crowded side-walk, she should've been confident that Ichiro was not following her. However, she still couldn't help feeling paranoid. She looked down at the coffee she hadn't let go since she was confronted by Ichiro. The brown liquid splashed a bit in the paper cup as she held it in her still trembling hands. She then lifted one of her hands, and cleared the liquid forming around her tear ducts with her finger.

Finally Kaori found the will to start walking again. Eventually she made it to the park she always passed through that was between her apartment and the office. The trees and lush, green scenery used to help relax her after a hard day's work. Today, however, they were having no such effect, as had been the case for quite some time. In fact, she really hadn't enjoyed much of anything recently.

On her way, she spotted a particular park bench down her path. There was someone sleeping on it facing the other direction. The sleeper wore a red sweatshirt with a hood pulled over her head. Most likely it was a transient. She didn't pay this person much mind and kept trudging towards her destination.

The moment before she passed, the figure on the bench yawned and rolled over just in time to catch a glimpse of Kaori as she walked by. The girl on the bench's big eyes got even bigger. She immediately shot up from the bench and began trailing closely behind the woman in business attire, careful to be stealthy enough not to be noticed.

They left the park and started walking down a side-walk that was covered with numerous large cracks. The hooded stalker continued to stay only a few feet behind Kaori. She could tell even from this position that Kaori was in a miserably depressed mood.

Coming closer to her apartment building, Kaori started fishing through her purse for her keys as she walked. Finally digging them out, they however slipped through her fingers and fell to the concrete below.

"I'm so clumsy," Kaori scolded herself. She bent over to pick up her keys that had fallen into a crack while trying to be careful not to spill her coffee at the same time.

With her shapely butt suspended in the air, this was a signal the stalker to take action. "Hehehe, this should brighten her day up," the hooded individual thought to herself.

She reached forward and squeezed.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Kaori shrieked. She spun around and the coffee from the cup in her hand inadvertently splashed in the molester's face.

"Owww!" She put her hands over her face. "Damn, Kaorin, that's hot!" After wiping away the scolding liquid, she pulled down her hood, and several big, curly and pointy locks of black hair fell behind her head. She looked a bit older than she remembered, but Kaori recognized her face instantly.

"Tt.. tt.. Tomo? Wildcat Tomo?"

Tomo's smirk widened several times larger upon hearing that old nickname again. "Yup it's me, The Great Wildcat Tomo Takino!"

"I can't believe it's you. I haven't seen you since high school. I'm _sooo_ sorry about the coffee."

"Hey, its ok, I can take a little pain." A new opportunity however suddenly dawned on her though. "But I promise not to hate you forever, if you take me out for drinks."

"Sh.. sure."

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The two were now seated at a dimly lit, small table located in the heart of a local pub. It was one that Tomo had suggested as being a great place with excellent food.

"How come you weren't at the class reunion a couple months back?" Tomo asked her.

"Oh, I was just really busy at work that week," Kaori answered sheepishly.

"That's too bad. You should've been there. It was so much fun to see everyone again. Guess who got fat?" She asked excitedly.

"Who?"

"Chihiro. It was hilarious!"

"Wow. Last time I saw her was right after her pregnancy. Maybe she wasn't able to put off the weight."

"Yeah, probably. Sucks for her. I, however, was the person in best shape there. Everyone was so impressed. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, you look fantastic, Tomo."

Tomo smiled widely at that answer. "Why thank you, Kaorin. Of course I do."

"I'm wondering though are you still best friends with Yomi?"

"Yup. She lives in the US now though. She met an exchange student at her college and she moved back to the US with him and got married. She has two beautiful kids now. I still talk to her all the time. She's still the same stupid Yomi."

"Well, it's good you still keep in touch. I didn't keep in touch with that many people."

"Hmmmm… Speaking of keeping _in touch_ with someone." The tone of Tomo's voice had suddenly changed. "_Sooooo,_ did you ever hook up with _Sakaki_?"

Upon hearing that Kaori started gagging on her sashimi, with her hands wrapped around her throat. When she finally managed to dislodge the fish from her trachea and stop choking, she replied nervously, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't be coy with me, Kaorin. We're not at school anymore. You can be honest with me now. Admit it. You were crushing on her big time."

"But how did you know?"

"I think everyone at school knew. You couldn't have been more obvious. 'Oh Miss Sakaki is _soooo_ cool! Oh my god, Miss Sakaki in a swim suit! I need to use the girl's room," Tomo performed her best impersonation of Kaori from their school days.

Kaori looked mortified with shock and embarrassment. "Everyone knew?"

"Yup. I don't think anyone cared though, at least as far as I could tell. I thought it was adorable myself."

"I had no idea it was that obvious. I can't believe everyone knew."

"You still haven't answered my question though."

"No, I never did," she answered. "I finally got the courage up to tell her how I felt when I met her again a few years after school. After I asked her out she just said, 'No thank you,' and went back on her way like nothing had happened at all. I felt like such an idiot. That's the real reason I didn't go to the reunion, I didn't want to face her again."

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. It's not your fault you didn't know. I couldn't tell which way she went myself. Sakaki is kinda hard to figure out. I'm sure she didn't mean any harm by how she answered you. That's just the way she is. She's just kind of weird that way."

"I guess you would know better than I do. I never did get to know her as well as you and the others did."

Tomo quirked an eyebrow. "But I bet you've had plenty of hot girlfriends since then, right?"

"No, not that many. I guess I'm just plain looking."

Tomo frowned at that answer. "That's bullshit Kaorin. Hell, I always thought you were one of the cutest girls at school. I should know. Being the cutest girl at school, I was the authority" she stated still proud over that fact which had never been questioned in her own mind.

"Well, if you say so."

"Fine, I'll prove it then." Tomo stood up from her chair. "Attention everyone!" She shouted. Everyone in the room suddenly ceased their various conversations. There was complete silence as everyone's attention in the pub was now fixed on the table with the two women. "I'd like to conduct a little survey," she told everyone. "Who here thinks this girl sitting next to me is cute?"

Her question was met by a barrage of whistles, hollers, cheering, and different comments such as "She's hot!" and "I'd do her!" all directed at Kaori who was now sweating bullets and had two small, thickly out-lined white dots for eyes. Tomo on the other hand was smiling quite broadly as she listened to the reaction.

"Ok, that's enough," Tomo shouted for them to stop. That command was met with loud applause from everyone in the room, until it shortly subsided back into the regular sounds of the bar.

"So, you still think you're not cute?"

"All right, all right, I believe you," the beet faced Kaori replied.

"Good," Tomo said extremely satisfied.

At that moment, several men started converging on their table.

"Get the hell out of here," Tomo growled at them. "That was a question, not an invitation!" She kept sneering until all the men backed away.

The two kept talking for about a couple of hours or so. Kaori really enjoyed her company, and Tomo appeared to be having a great time as well. She noted though that Tomo must've been pretty hungry because she kept ordering more and more food and beer.

Eventually, they decided it was time to go and the incredibly large bill came. Tomo pulled her wallet from her back pants pocket and opened it over the table. A 5-yen coin and two 1-yen coins fell out. "Guess that's all I have left."

"Don't worry, I can get it." Kaori extracted her credit card out of her purse a paid for it without a second thought.

After Kaori got her card back, she laid a generous cash tip down for the waitress and stood up from her chair. Tomo also stood up, but stumbled clumsily over her feet when she tried to step forward. She outstretched her arms and grabbed a hold of Kaori's shoulders to brace her fall.

"Guess I thought more than I drank," Tomo said with suddenly slurred speech. With her arms still draped over the shorter Kaori's shoulders and her chest pressing against her back, Tomo moved her head above Kaori's left shoulder and placed her lips very close to Kaori's ear. "Kaorin, _sweetie_, can you take me home?" Tomo asked blowing her warm breath into her ear.

"Sure, Tomo."

Kaori walked towards the exit. A big sweat drop formed on her face as many of the bar's patrons stared at the site of Tomo with her arms wrapped around the shorter girl's frame, as Tomo shuffled along under her support.

They made it out onto the street, and Kaori hailed a cab with her free arm. She opened the door, and carried Tomo towards it. Tomo drunkenly crawled to the far side of the back seat. When Kaori got in and sat down, Tomo suddenly collapsed into her lap. She nuzzled her cheek in between her thighs. "Mmmmm, comfy," Tomo said dreamily.

"So where to, miss?" The cab-driver asked, getting an eye-full form the rear-view mirror.

"Tomo where do you live?"

Tomo responded from Kaori's lap with, "Mananagawawa." She asked her again, getting a similar response of incomprehensible, drunken gibberish.

Kaori gave her a little shake and repeated the question. "But I don't want to go to school, mommy," Tomo said as she wrapped her arms around one of Kaori's legs and squeezed it like it was her stuffed animal.

Finally giving up, Kaori gave the address of her own apartment to the cab-driver.

A few minutes later the cab stopped in front her apartment building, and they both got out. Tomo was still was apparently unable to walk under her own power, so Kaori put her head under one of her shoulders to hoist her up. "Come on Tomo, you can spend the night at my place." Tomo smirked, but as Kaori turned to look at her she suddenly regained her glazed over look

Finally, after much effort to carry the comparatively heavy Tomo, they made it to the door to her apartment. Kaori dug her keys out of her purse again, and unlocked it.

The second the door swung open, Tomo walked right out of Kaori's support in a straight line, almost marching into the room with no trouble at all. "Ah, we're finally here. Thanks for carrying me. You're such a sweet-heart," she said now sounding completely sober.

"I thought you were drunk." Kaori said extremely confused.

"Are you kidding me? That was nothing. I'd have to drink at least three times that for it to even phase me."

"Do you want me to call another cab to take you back to your place?"

"Nah. I can't go back there anyways. They changed the locks on me because of some jerk."

"What jerk?"

"Some guy. He was always asking me for money and stuff. Boy, was he annoying." Tomo looked around the room. "Wow, this place looks great. I'm sure going to like living here."

"Whaaaat?" She asked, now even more confused than before.

Tomo just ignored the question and started walking all around the apartment inspecting everything. She walked into the kitchen. "Nice looking fridge." She opened the door and inspected the contents. "But what's all this? Where's the junk food? You know all this healthy stuff is no good for you, Kaorin."

Next, Tomo entered the bedroom. Kaori followed behind her still very much in awe of what was occurring. "Wow, the bed's nice and big." Tomo quirked her eye-brow at Kaori again. "Like your leg room, huh?"

"Ummm… Yes."

"_Oh_, I see," she said in a knowingly, saucy tone. Tomo walked up and pushed down on the mattress. "Cushy yet firm. I like it. We'll have to see about durability though. You can never tell that for sure unless you really put it to the test."

She spotted the door to her bathroom and walked into it. She looked the shower over. "Ooooh, clear, glass door. Excellent choice. Now to test the water," Tomo said as she pulled the red sweat shirt and the t-shirt underneath over her head exposing the smooth, creamy skin of her back. She then un-did her belt, and her baggy jeans fell to her feet, revealing trim legs and pink under-wear. Kaori was still standing in the door way, completely distracted by the display.

"Naughty, naughty, Kaorin," Tomo said in a mischievous voice as she unhooked her bra.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kaori said embarrassed as she turned around and left.

She went back to the kitchen, and shortly heard the sound of the water spraying from the shower head. She then decided to prepare some herbal tea.

Several minutes later, Tomo re-entered the living room. Her hair was dripping wet and her still moist body was wrapped up in a white, terry bath robe. She was also moving Kaori's tooth brush back and forth in her mouth.

"Would you like some tea?" She asked. The kettle and two teacups were set out on a tray on the coffee table.

Tomo removed the tooth-brush from her mouth. "Yes, I thought you'd never ask." Tomo then saw something on a near by shelf, "What's this?"

She removed the picture frame from the shelf to get a closer look. It was a photograph of Kaori and Sakaki in their old, pink sailor uniforms. She had her arm around Sakaki's and was laying her head close to her shoulder. Kaori's face was completely flushed. Sakaki, being put into this impromptu situation on the last day of school for the sake of Kaori's crush, had a slightly surprised look on her face. Her look wasn't that much different than the usual, expressionless mask she always wore, but a trace of un-comfortableness was there.

"Oh, I remember taking this one. I forgot how cute it was. I remember you kept begging me for copies all break, until I finally caved in and gave you one the day before you went to college."

"It's pretty pathetic that I still keep that picture around, huh?"

"No, that's not pathetic. I know how it feels to love some one for a really long time and then find out later they didn't feel the same way about you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You should be happy you got the chance to feel that way, and cherish those memories. But, you have to sort of forget about it too. It's really hard, but you can do it if you have spirit, determination, and guts!"

"Where did you learn that?" Kaori asked impressed.

"I think I heard that from an anime."

A sweat drop formed on Kaori's fore-head and then evaporated.

Tomo then stared directly at Kaori. "Hey, you got something on your face."

Kaori brushed her left cheek. "Is it gone?"

"_No_, not that side."

She brushed her right cheek. "Did I get it?"

"No, not yet. It's more in the center," Tomo said pointing at her face and getting closer.

Kaori brushed her chin and lips, "Did I get it this time?"

"No, here I'll show you." Tomo walked up until she was inches from her. "Its _riiight_ here." Tomo suddenly pressed her lips against Kaori's.

She kissed her softly at first. Tomo then removed her lips and made contact with Kaori's brown eyes. Looking into them, she definitely saw approval, so she took that as a cue to mash her lips harder against Kaori's. Tomo was surprised when Kaori opened her mouth to give her better access, and soon both their tongues met.

After what seemed to last forever, both women pulled their mouths apart and sucked in air greedily.

"Tastes like tooth-paste," Kaori suddenly commented. That irrelevant comment caused both Tomo and Kaori to uproar into laughter.

After she finally stopped laughing, Tomo told her, "I can't believe that's the only thing you had to say."

"Hey, it's true. But it was the best tooth-paste I ever tasted."

"Oh, yeah, I bet."

"But, hey, what's that?" Kaori pointed off into the distance.

"Huh?" Tomo foolishly turned to look.

"I don't see any…," Tomo's speech was cut off when she turned around and Kaori's lips suddenly pressed hard against hers. Kaori wrapped her arms around Tomo and almost tackled her, causing Tomo to fall back onto the couch. Kaori ended up on top of her still refusing to remove her lips.

After another very lingering kiss, they again pulled their lips apart. "Hey no fair, Kaorin," Tomo said looking down, referring to the fact that her robe had come undone in the front revealing the details of her curvaceous body and silky skin. Kaori started to unbutton her top. "No, that's my job," Tomo said taking over for her.

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Some time later, they were both snuggled up together under the covers of Kaori's bed.

"So, what would you rate me from 1 to 10?"

"Oh, that was _wonderful_," Kaori said dreamily. "I give you a 10."

Tomo shot her hand up from under the sheets displaying two fingers stretched into a victory sign. "Wildcat Tomo is the best!"

"She certainly is," Kaori leaned over towards Tomo and gave her another short kiss.

"Better than any man, woman, or child!"

"Child?" Kaori asked shocked.

"Uhhhhh.. No, that's not what I meant. I guess that one doesn't work for sex," Tomo said surprised she found a situation where that line didn't apply.

"Tomo, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Go ahead, Kaorin."

"Would you stop calling me Kaorin?"

"Why?" Tomo asked confused.

"I never liked that name. Everyone at school just started calling me that one day. I never chose to be called that."

"Wait, you have another name?" Tomo asked sounding even more confused.

Kaori rolled her eyes and turned over to face the other direction.

"No, wait. I was just kidding. I know your name is Kaori, but I like Kaorin a lot better."

Kaori turned back over. "Well, I don't like it."

"Ok, I'll call you Kaori, but can I call you Kaorin sometimes," Tomo said as her voice got softer. She placed her hand on Kaori's cheek and ran it over her smooth skin, down her neck, over her shoulder, and down her arm to where she gripped her hand. "It can be something special I get to call you and no one else."

"Sure," Kaori pleasantly agreed as she blushed deep red.

"And since I have to call you Kaori now, you have to call me Miss Tomo."

"Whaaaaaat?"

"Yeah, like you used to do with Sakaki," Tomo explained. "Whenever you see me I want you to be like, '_Woooow_ Miss Tomo is _sooooo_ cool! If I ever got to touch that awesomely hot body and those huge melons of Miss Tomo's, I'd just shrivel to the ground and die," Tomo said her hands clasped with a mock starry, far away look in her eyes.

"No," Kaori stated in a combination of annoyance and embarrassment.

"Come on, I just know you want to call me Miss Tomo."

"I don't," she stated firmly.

"Pleaaaaaase, I wanna be Miss Tomo."

"No."

"I wanna be Miss Tomo. I wanna be Miss Tomo. I wanna be Miss Tomo. I wanna be Miss Tomo. I wanna be Miss Tomo." she begged repeatedly like a little kid.

"No way. Not now. Not in a hundred years. Not in a million years. Not in ten billion years. Not when the sun collapses into a black hole and sucks the earth into oblivion."

"Ok, but can you at least call me that when we do it?"

"I'll think about it."

To Be Continued


	2. Chapter 2

After

Chapter 2

"Gyubei stop eating my pants!" The short, dark haired girl screamed at the animated dairy cow.

"Moooooooooo!" The cow replied before it proceeded to continue munching on the agitated girl's trousers.

"Hahahahahaha," Tomo laughed hysterically at the plasma tv screen from her position on the couch. "That was great," she said clearing a tear from her eye. "This is the best show ever. They should show it all day!" She then took the spoon she had been gripping and resumed shoveling soy milk and whole grain cereal into her mouth from the bowl she held, her eyes completely hypnotized by the cartoon.

Tomo then heard the sound of the front door being unlocked from the outside followed by the creaking sound it made when it was pushed open. "Welcome home _baby_!" She exclaimed exaggeratedly to greet Kaori.

When Tomo turned her head to actually look at her, however, she could see that Kaori herself was not in such a joyous mood. The short woman in the gray suit coat and matching blouse had black smeared under her eyes from running mascara, the cause of which were tears that still continued to trickle down from her eyes and down her cheeks.

Tomo dropped her bowl of cereal on the coffee table splashing milk on it, ran up to her, and gripped her arms. "What's wrong Kaori?"

She didn't respond, other than to avert Tomo's eye contact and look down.

Tomo took her fingers and gently lifted up her chin to regain contact with her brown eyes. "Hey, it's ok. Whatever it is, I don't care, you can tell me. I'm here now, you can trust me," she told her. "Come on lets sit down." Tomo guided her to the couch by the arm and sat her down. "I'll be back in a second." She ran to the kitchen looked around until she found a clean dish rag. She ran half of it under warm water and returned to the couch. She took the cloth and gently wiped Kaori's cheeks and under her eyes cleaning the black stains and the tears. She then padded her face dry with the other said and sat down close to Kaori. "Now can you tell me what's wrong?"

"He… hee," Kaori mumbled out and stopped.

"He did what?" Tomo asked looking at her concerned.

"He touched me again," Kaori blurted out quickly and looked back down. Even saying it was more humiliating than she could stand.

"Who?" Tomo asked, already beginning to get angry at the he in question.

"Ichiro."

"Who is this son of a bitch?"

"He's my boss."

"How long has been going on?"

"Months. I tell him to stop, but he never listens to me."

"Don't they have ways of reporting that? Get his ass fired. Or better yet, call the cops and get his ass thrown in jail."

"He's really popular with upper management and all the men and women at the office. I'm afraid if I complain and get him in trouble, it would be bad for my career there."

"How do you know that will happen? You shouldn't put up with that asshole just because he's your boss."

"Other than him, I just love my job. I worked really hard to get into that company. It was my dream to work there. I couldn't believe they even hired me. I don't want to lose it all now."

"Well if you won't do anything about it, I'll have to take care of him myself," Tomo said as she pounded her fist into her hand.

"Oh, Tomo, please don't! I don't know what Ichiro would do to you. I think he could be dangerous. I couldn't stand it if you got hurt by him."

"I can't stand seeing you get hurt by him either, Kaori. If you don't do anything about it, than I will."

"_Ok, ok_," she begged. "I'll do something about it."

"You sure?"

"Yes," Kaori said weakly.

"You promise?"

"Yeah. I will."

"Good. I don't want to see you like this again. And I want to be the only person who gets to touch you. You don't mind if I touch you right?"

Kaori managed a smile at her, "No, I _like_ you."

"Good, because I sure like being close to you." Tomo said as she scooted closer and wrapped her arms around the shorter woman. Kaori responded by lowering her head and resting it her chest. "It'll be all right, I promise," Tomo said as she wiped away some of her own tears that were forming in the corner of her eyes. Tomo just held her, and Kaori remained in her position feeding off of Tomo's warmth for quite some time.

Eventually, Tomo asked, "Do you feel any better?"

"Yeah, I do. I used to come home from work and cry to myself. I'm so glad you're here, Tomo. In fact, you're only thing I could think about at work. I couldn't wait until I got home to see you again," Kaori explained cheering up a little.

"Does this mean I can stay?"

"Can I ask you why you didn't just go home to your parents after they changed the lock to your apartment?"

"Hmmmm…. Well, I haven't been there for years, so the idea just didn't occur to me."

"Why?" Kaori asked shocked. "What happened between you and your parents?"

"They threw me out of the house after I came out. It's funny though. They didn't even seem to care that much when I came back home after I dropped out of college after only one semester. It was almost like it was no big deal at all. But apparently their daughter liking girls was just too much for them."

"I'm so sorry."

"No, its ok. I've been over it for years."

"So you haven't talked to them all this time?"

"Nope."

"Haven't you thought about talking to them again, maybe you could patch things up?"

"I did for a while, but they never contacted me again after that, so I assumed they just didn't care anymore. Maybe I will talk to them again one day, but I don't want to get too worked up about it."

"I still haven't told my mom yet. I don't know if I want to now after hearing how your parents reacted."

"No, you should. My parents were just jerks. I don't know how much they ever really cared, but I remember your mom being really nice."

"She is nice, and she was a great mom. I love her a lot. But what if she still doesn't understand?"

"You'll never be sure unless you try."

"You might be right, but I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Well if you keep pushing it off like this, it may never happen. Maybe I shouldn't have told my parents then when they could still kick me out, but at least now I can be myself."

"Well, if you're going to be living here, I guess she may end up finding out either way."

Tomo lit up brighter than the sun. "Does that mean I can stay?"

"But if you stay here, I want you to try and get a job. I don't want you just sitting around watching anime all day," she said glancing at the tv and the coffee table covered with spilt milk and bran flakes.

"Ok, for my new job I'll be your house-wife."

"Hmmmm…," Kaori put her hand on her chin. "Do you cook?"

"Does instant stuff count? My ramen noodles are _world famous_."

Kaori just ignored that answer. "Do you clean?"

"Of course I do. I'm like a world class maid, like from those anime except with bigger boobs."

Kaori looked around at all the random articles of clothing and empty food containers strewn about across the room and quirked an eye brow at her. "You call this clean?"

"Ummm… Yes."

Kaori just gave her a blank stare.

"Ok, ok, I'll look for a job, but that means I get to stay right?"

"Yes. I'd really like it if you would."

"Yay!" Tomo jumped from her spot on the couch and landed on Kaori pinning her down. They looked into each other's eyes and felt each other's breath for a moment, before their lips met, slid into each other, and they both enjoyed a long, sensual kiss.

After a long while, they pulled their lips apart and came up for air. "Wow, a hot, new girlfriend and a new place!"

"It's just your lucky day, I guess," Kaori said smiling.

"Oh, I want to call Yomi and tell her the good news."

Tomo went over to the phone which sat on a table to the side of the couch and dialed in a series of digits. She sat listening to the receiver for a moment and then dialed in some more. When a pre-recorded voice asked her to give her name after the beep, she shouted into the phone, "Tomo Takino, Wildcat High School Graduate!"

"You're not calling her collect are you?" Kaori inquired.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Yomi doesn't care. She thinks it's hilarious."

After a while, Tomo heard a familiar and annoyed dead-pan voice at the other end of the line, "Hello, Tomo."

"Guess what?"

"_What_," Yomi asked sarcastically mocking excitement.

"I got a new girlfriend!"

"I feel sorry for her."

"Ah, come on. I know you're just saying that to hide your immense jealousy."

"Oh yes, Tomo. I'm _sooooo_ jealous that I'm going to buy a one way ticket to Japan, and abandon my husband and children to elope with you right this minute."

"I'm waiting." There was silence for an extended length of time. "I'm still waiting." There was even more silence. "What's wrong Yomi? Are you too fat now to make it this far?"

"What about your new girlfriend," Yomi muttered about ready to snap.

"Well not only is she a new girlfriend, but she's a live-in girlfriend!"

"And by live-in girlfriend, you mean you're the live-in girlfriend," Yomi instantly deduced.

"No! Are you deaf? I said I have a new live-in girlfriend."

"_Fine_. Then where are you living right now?"

"At my new live-in girlfriend's apartment."

"Then _how_ are you not the live-in girlfriend?" Tomo could almost sense the vein on Yomi's head pounding over the phone.

"It just so happens that I just moved in to live-in with my new live-in girl friend. Pretty strange coincidence, huh?"

"_Yeah_, amazing."

"But forget about that. That's not the awesome part. It's someone from our old school."

"Really," Yomi asked now genuinely interested.

"Yes! You won't believe who it is! I want you to try and guess."

"Ok…," Yomi thought for a moment. "Is it Chiyo-chan?"

"Ewwww, no! That's just sick. Try again."

"Ok, how about Osaka?"

"Ummmm… no. That would just be weird."

"Miss Yukari?"

"No, but I did have this dream about her once. She had me do this extra credit assignment where she leaned over her desk and told me to lick her as…"

"It's Kaorin! Right," Yomi shouted over the phone to cut her off.

"Wow, you're good. How did you know?"

"Just a good guess. Is she there now?"

"Yeah."

"Can I talk to her?"

"Sure." Tomo reached out with the receiver towards Kaori. "Yomi wants to talk to you."

"Hi, Yomi," Kaori said timidly into the phone.

"Hi, Kaorin."

"I'm really sorry for calling you collect."

"That's not your fault, I don't mind," Yomi lied. "I'm just glad to talk to you again. It's been a really long time."

"It has, since graduation I think."

"How come I didn't see you at the class reunion?"

"I was just really busy that week."

"That's too bad. Everyone there missed you."

"I wish I could've made it," Kaori said regretfully.

"So where are you working now?"

"I work at the Daitokuji Financial Group's corporate headquarters."

"Wow, I'm impressed. That's a really prestigious firm. I tried applying there before I moved to the US and they rejected my application."

"Thank you. I still can't believe I'm working there myself."

The two continued their friendly chatting from opposite sides of the globe. Eventually, the conversation turned to the conspicuous subject Tomo.

"Isn't if funny how Tomo is exactly like she was in high school?" Kaori asked.

"I used to think it was immaturity, but now I'm certain there's something wrong with her brain." Kaori laughed loudly at that.

Tomo listened to the conversation from the side-lines as Kaori's laughter got increasingly louder

"And I'm sure you're familiar with her infamous snoring by now."

Kaori giggled loudly. "She sounds like a polar bear!"

"Hey you're not talking about me, are you," Tomo asked.

Yomi continued, "And what about the way she chews her food?"

"Just like a cow eating grass. I didn't want to say anything, but my god is it funny."

"What is she saying about me?" Tomo pulled on Kaori's shoulder. "Come on tell me, _pleaaaase_." She just ignored her and kept talking.

The two kept making fun of Tomo until eventually Kaori's conscience got the better of her. "Maybe I should go. I don't want to leave you with such a horrendous phone bill. Are you sure I can't pay it?"

"No, it's all right. It wouldn't be the first time. You can pay me back by taking good care of Tomo, ok?"

"Ok."

"Make sure she behaves and doesn't mooch off of you too much."

"Sure."

"And most importantly make sure she doesn't choke to death on her food or wander head first into moving traffic."

Kaori laughed again. "Ok. I'll do that."

"Bye, Kaorin. Don't be a stranger."

"Ok. You too, Yomi. I really enjoyed talking to you. Bye." Kaori hung up the phone.

"I can't believe you, talking about me behind my back. What kind of live-in girlfriend are you?"

Kaori pulled down the bottom of her eye-lid stuck her tongue out at her.

"Hmph! I should make you sleep on the couch tonight." Tomo put her chin up and looked away from her, feigning anger. However, in reality she was just really glad to see Kaori in a much happier mood compared to the miserable state she had found her in earlier.

To Be Continued


	3. Chapter 3

After

Chapter 3

Tomo and Kaori were currently enjoying dinner together in Kaori's small, but cozy kitchen. Kaori finished chewing her bite of food and looked over across the table at her girl-friend.

Her hair had recently been cut to a shorter style, pushing her black, pine-tree branch like locks up closer to her head. Kaori had liked her long hair, but she found the shorter style had its own charms as well. This was the hair style Tomo had preferred since the last year of high school, but she really hadn't the money to maintain it for the past several months. Thanks to Kaori's generosity, though, she now had money for a hair-cut. Kaori had gone to get her hair done with her, but only to touch it up. Many things may have changed over the years, but Kaori's distinctive hair style was one thing that remained constant.

While still staring over at her, Kaori was also very pleased to see Tomo digging her face into the food she had cooked for them. Her cooking was something Tomo had taken an immediate liking too.

On the opposite side of the table, despite her enjoyment of the meal, something was continuing to bug Tomo in the back of her mind. She stopped eating for a moment and brought her face up from her plate to look across the table at her companion. "Did they take care of your problem at work, yet," she asked curiously.

"They're still investigating it," Kaori lied.

"Well, I hope they hurry up with it."

"I think these things take time, but I don't want to talk about that right now. How is your job hunt going," she asked.

"I went and tried applying at a bunch of good looking places, but they kept looking at me like I was missing something."

"Hmmm…" Kaori put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment. "Can I see your résumé?"

"What's résumé? Is that some kind of French soup? Sure sounds good."

"Are you serious?"

Tomo's big, brown eyes just stared at her blankly.

"Ok, don't worry about it," Kaori assured her. "I'll help you write one."

"Ok, although writing a soup sounds kind of hard."

"You're probably going to need references too. Can we use any of your old bosses?"

"Well, the restaurant I was a waitress at closed the week after I was fired. Leena who I worked for at the flower shop I think is still in that coma she went into after her mental break-down, and last time I saw my boss from MOS Burger he said a bunch of really weird stuff to me. I think it might have been a voodoo curse or something, I'm not quite sure."

"_Okaaay_, never mind," Kaori said hearing more than enough. She thought for a little longer until the solution came to her. "I'll be your reference. In fact, I'll have you apply at my old company. Everyone in the HR department knows me. So if they see my name, you'll at least get an interview," she explained. "I really don't like them, anyways," she added in a soft murmur to herself.

"Why can't I work at the company you're at now?"

"No."

"Oh, come on, it'll be _a lot_ _of fuuun_."

"Not a chance."

"Just think of all the jokes we could play on each other. Remember back at school when they were stupid enough to let me get my hands on the copy machine, and then I distributed that baby picture of Yomi taking a bath and eating a bar of soap to everyone in school. It could be like that every day... Eating soap, _god_, what a stupid baby," she said before she laughed again at the prank from years ago.

"Even if you murdered me and then dragged me back up from the depths of hell, the answer would still be no."

"Well, ok," Tomo lowered her head giving up. She then perked it back up again, "But what if during this interview with this other company I ask the questions? That would be pretty funny wouldn't it?"

"If you don't take this seriously, then you're not getting any more of my fish tacos."

"WHAT," Tomo asked looking completely shocked. "Not your fish tacos! Tomo stood up, pushing her chair back, and pointed her finger at Kaori, dramatically calling her bluff. "You wouldn't!"

Kaori folded her arms and shot an icy, stern look right back at her. "_I would_."

Tomo sat back down in her chair and stared down mournfully at the last folded tortilla on her plate. Its contents were red snapper, avocado, lettuce, tomato, daikon radish, and Kaori's home-made special sauce. A future without this delicious specialty of Kaori's seemed bleak at best.

"And if you don't, you're not getting any sex either." Tomo's head dropped into her plate. "But we can worry about that later. Tonight I was thinking maybe we could go see a movie. _Maybe something romantic_."

Tomo lifted her head from her plate. The tortilla shell slid off of her face, leaving much of the sauce and other ingredients sticking to her. "Yeah, a movie sounds good."

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The two women were now walking down a city side-walk together, hand in hand, on their way to the movie theatre. They passed by numerous people. Most didn't pay them much attention, but a number still gawked at the sight of the two females holding hands.

Tomo glanced over and pleasantly examined the features of her companion. She used to find her trade-mark haircut humorous in high school, but it had really grown on her in the past couple of weeks. Her dark and very oval eyes, which were currently staring at the path ahead, were another thing she had started to really enjoy. She then focused in on her round cheeks, and that's when she noted that they currently held an extremely rosy complexion. "I thought you said you weren't embarrassed to hold my hand in public anymore?"

"I'm not," Kaori answered her confidently.

"Than why are you blushing so much?"

"_Because you're holding my hand._"

"Oh, you're so cute when you get like that!" Tomo said as she moved her lips over and planted a wet kiss on her reddened cheek, which caused it to blush even more. Not yet satisfied, she planted a string of several more kisses. "I could just eat you all up!"

Despite her nervousness of being in public, Kaori moved her head over and gave Tomo a short kiss on the lips. "_Maybe later_."

Tomo laughed. "I've taught my girl well," she said as she started moving her palm back and forth across the top of the woman's dark-brown haired head and kept on doing so.

"Please stop petting my head."

"That's a good Kaori," she said as she continued to stroke the top of her head.

"I'm not your dog."

"You're a good girl, _yes you are_. _Yes you are,_" she said making a ridiculous face at her.

"Tomo_, we're in public_," Kaori pleaded as she noticed a whole lot more people were staring at them now.

"Would you bark for me?"

"_No_, I won't bark for you."

"Come on, bark for your master."

"_No_."

"If you bark for me, _I'll give you a little treat_."

"Stop it Tomo, we're already at the movie theatre." They stopped walking having reached the end of the line of people waiting for the outside box office.

Tomo removed her hand but then continued, "You're going to roll over for me later."

"Tomo, _please_, people can hear us. _Ahhhhhhhhhh_!" Kaori suddenly jumped behind Tomo and gripped onto her tightly from behind, as she began to shake and sweat uncontrollably. All of this had been in response to the man in front of them in the line turning around.

It was a middle aged man. He wore a drab, gray suit, with a white shirt underneath, and a loosely tightened tie resting over the top of it. Protruding from this suit was a stalk of a neck that held up a head with a boney, pale face and unkempt hair on top of it. While the two women remembered him having jet black hair, it was now beginning to show noticeable signs of gray. Underneath the hair was a pair of perfectly circular glasses that still seemed impenetrable, never disclosing what his eyes were really doing on the other side. However, below these was by far his most striking and memorable feature. That was his always gaping jaw which caused his mouth to continually be wide open, leaving him seemingly in a perpetual state of shock.

The man just stood there staring at them with his open mouth for what seemed like a very long period, until Tomo finally decided to greet him. "Mr. Kimura, funny seeing you here… heh, heh," she said a bit taken back by the man's sudden appearance herself.

His lips finally moved, "Well, good evening Tomo, and good evening to you too Kaori." His body leaned, unnaturally far to the left so he could get a look at her. Kaori shrieked again, and pressed her head into Tomo's shoulder to avert his glance. "I wasn't expecting to meet some of my former, favorite students today. What a pleasure."

"The same," Tomo said not sounding too convincing.

"I'm curious, what have you two been up to recently."

"Well, Kaori, she's a big shot at the Daitokuji Corporation," Tomo said pointing her thumb back at the shivering girl hiding behind her. "I'm going to be a corporate big wheel too as soon as I get hired at this new place I'm going to work at. Maybe even a vice-president or CEO or something."

"That's great. I'm always glad to hear my students are doing so well."

"So what are you doing in town, Mr. Kimura," Tomo asked. "Teaching Classic Lit?"

"No, I haven't taught since my teacher's license was revoked after _the incident_." After the utterance of the last word in a disturbingly dark voice, his head turned 45 degrees clock-wise, and then suddenly snapped back into its normal position.

"Eeek," came from behind Tomo's back.

"_Uhhhhh_… So where are you working now," Tomo asked almost not wanting to know the answer.

"I train seeing-eye dogs."

"Ok… Do you like that job?"

"Yes. The pay is better than what I made as a teacher, and I feel great pride knowing that I'm doing something that really helps people." Upon hearing that, Kaori began peeking back over Tomo's shoulder.

"Well, that's good," Tomo said.

"Yes… Yes, it is. It's a good thing… _a very good thing_… Well, it was nice talking to you ladies again. Beautiful day out isn't it," he asked staring up into the sky before he turned back around to face the other direction.

Still behind her, Kaori moved her lips near Tomo's ear and whispered into them, "He seemed a lot nicer, and he didn't even call me Kaorin. Maybe he's changed."

Mean while, there were 3 young, school-age girls in front of Kimura in the line. They were chatting amongst themselves loudly, gossiping about another girl at school. They were also becoming increasingly nervous because of the ominous looking man behind them who kept staring down at them through his glasses. "So you girls like movies, huh," he suddenly asked them.

"Y..yy..yes," the pudgiest of the three stuttered to answer the man with the gaping mouth.

"You know, I have a video camera. How would you girls like to make your own movies?"

"_Ahhhhhhhh_," all three girls shrieked in unison and scattered away from the movie theatre and off into the sunset.

"CHOO CHOOOOO," Kimura called out to them, which caused the girls in the distance to move even faster.

"_Ok, maybe not_," Kaori said as another cold shiver ran up her spine.

After the three girls' departure, Kimura was soon at the front of the line. The box-office attendant asked him for help, and he answered, "One for Hello Kitty vs. Doraemon vs. Pokemon: All-Out Cuteness Attack." He took his ticket and disappeared behind the movie theatre door.

Kaori was relieved to see the disturbing man from her past gone from her vision. She then dug in her purse until she extracted her credit card, and stepped up to the box-office window. "Two for…"

"Mid Afternoon of the Not Quite Dead please," Tomo asked as she cut off Kaori mid sentence.

"The Not Quite Dead?" Kaori asked her. "I thought we decided we were going to that romantic comedy, Sleepless in Sapporo."

"Sleepless where," Tomo asked playing dumb.

"In Sapporo. You know it's the one about the couple who falls in love by instant messaging each other, but it ends up they were living right next to each other the whole time and never knew it. But then they find out they can't be together because they work for rival political parties. _It sounds_ _so romantic_," Kaori said as she clasped her hands together and stared up into the sky with sparkling eyes as a parade of imaginary, tiny angels blowing trumpets flew behind her head.

"_Blah_," Tomo said sticking two fingers down her throat and her tongue out in disgust. "That one looks boring, besides I heard this one is _way_ more romantic."

"_How_? It's a horror movie. How could a horror movie possibly be romantic?"

"It's about a young woman who falls in love with a zombie, but they're trapped between two different worlds. She's a rich high society girl from the city with demanding parents, and the zombie is an animated corpse who rose out of the dirt of the local cemetery. So they elope together and join the circus to become famous trapeze artists."

"I don't believe you."

"Would you please hurry up and decide," the box-office attendant asked becoming increasingly annoyed. "_We do have other customers you know_."

The couple however remained completely oblivious to him. "_Aww_, come on, _baby_. Have I ever lied to you?"

"Yes! Plus I don't like horror movies, they're too scary! I can't even stand seeing blood."

"Live a little, Kaori. Besides, I heard this one isn't scary at all. The reviews say it's almost like a kid's movie. There isn't even any blood in it, I swear."

"Well, if there's no blood and it isn't that bad, mayb..."

"Great! Two for the zombie-splatter flick," Tomo said as she ripped Kaori's credit card out her hand and gave it to the man through the slot in the bottom of the glass.

"_Finally_," he said irately. He quickly swiped the card, and printed out two tickets. "Here ya go, please enjoy the show and _get out of my line_!"

A few minutes later, Kaori passed through the swinging doors into the theatre showing Mid Afternoon of the Not Quite Dead. She was shortly followed by Tomo who was gripping a big tub of popcorn, a soda, and several boxes of candy.

Kaori scanned the theatre. It was largely deserted, being a sea of empty seats save for a couple of suspicious looking characters sitting in the back. "Why is there no one in here," Kaori asked. It didn't seem to make sense based on the sizeable line they encountered outside.

"Probably because it's so popular everyone assumed it was sold out. I of course decided to come, because I knew that's exactly what they would do. That must make me a genius."

"I guess so." They went and sat in a secluded row of seats near the front of the screen. Tomo instantaneously began digging her face into all the food they had bought.

"Want some jujubes," Tomo asked with a mouth full of candy, soda, and popcorn.

"No, thank you."

Tomo swallowed her food. "Why not?"

"I really don't like them."

"Don't like them, what are you nuts?"

"_Noooo_, I just never liked them. I'm not real big on candy."

"Not big on candy," she asked in complete disbelief. "Ok, now that is nuts. Come on, just try one. _For me,_ _pleaaaaaase_," Tomo begged as she held out one of the small, red, gummy, pieces of candy between her fingers.

"Well, ok," she agreed not wanting to hear anymore whining.

Instead of just handing it to her, Tomo instead kept the jujube held firmly between two fingers and pressed it gently against Kaori's lips, and nuzzled it against them softly.

"Open wide," she told her playfully. On command Kaori parted her lips, and Tomo moved her fingers and the candy through them and inside her mouth making contact with her tongue. She let her fingers linger for a moment over her tongue, until she finally released the jujube and slowly pulled her fingers back out of her lips.

Kaori chewed for a few seconds and then swallowed. "Some how they taste much better than I remember," Kaori said as she gave Tomo a devilish smirk.

Tomo returned Kaori's smile. "See, _I told ya_. You want more right?"

"Yes, please."

Tomo kept slowly inserting the candy into her mouth one piece at a time, much to Kaori's enjoyment. Then suddenly Kaori felt the need to reciprocate. "Would you like some Tomo?"

"You know I would." Kaori then took the box of candy from Tomo, and shook it until one green jujube dropped into her palm. She gripped it between her thumb and index finger, and then moved it until it passed through Tomo's soft, supple lips, and her fingers and the candy met her warm, wet tongue inside. After playing with her tongue for a few moments, Kaori removed her fingers. "_Yum_, really sweet, just like you."

Kaori giggled. "You're so corny."

"Hey, I'm not cor_mamama_…," Tomo was cut off after Kaori stuck a hand full of more candy into Tomo's mouth.

After Tomo finished gagging, they continued playfully feeding each other through the previews. After they ended, the two women then stared up at the movie screen, both in strong anticipation but for different reasons.

Eerie music began pumping out of the surround-sound system from all sides, before the words, "Mid Afternoon of the Not Quite Dead directed by George C. Camero," appeared in big, foreboding white type across the huge black screen. Kaori already getting a bit nervous wrapped her fingers around Tomo's arm.

The black screen faded into a mid afternoon's fall sun shining down on an old, country road located in a sparsely populated farm-town somewhere in the United States. Slowly a car made its appearance from far off in the background from around a hill. It slowly crept up the winding road until it finally came close to the camera, and the camera turned to watch it drive further off into the distance.

The old, yellow sedan kept traveling over various beaten roads across a barren landscape that was only inhabited by dying grass and the occasional leafless tree. Finally, some signs of human civilization appeared in front of the car in the form of a field of short, chiseled, stone blocks that jutted up out of the ground. The old car kept driving closer over a gravel path until names, dates, and other English words such as "father" and "daughter" could be made out on the grave markers. Finally, after penetrating the heart of the cemetery, the vehicle rolled to a stop.

The passenger door opened up, and out walked a very attractive, young female. Her beautiful, shoulder-length, purple shaded hair, as well as her brown, almost amber eyes nearly glimmered in the sun. She was shortly joined by the driver who was an equally, young, skinny male with strawberry-blonde hair and aqua-blue eyes. He was holding a memorial wreath they had bought for the occasion, which had red and white flowers attached to the front of small cross. The boy and the girl walked forward some distance through the stone monuments, crunching dried up leaves on the grass as they walked.

"There it is," the girl spotted the grave they had been seeking. They both walked up to it, and the boy kneeled down.

"I wonder what happened to the one from last year," he said, after stabbing the wire stakes which held up the wreath into the ground in front of the head-stone. "Each year we spend good money on these things. We come out here and the one from last years gone."

"Well the flowers die and the care-taker or somebody takes them away," she explained.

"_Yeah, _a little spit and polish, you can clean this up, and sell it next year. I wonder how many times we bought the same one," he asked as he stood up, mocking cynicism strong in his voice.

"You're such an asshole Ken." The pretty girl then got down on her knees, clasped her hands, closed her eyes, and lowered her head to pray silently in front of the grave.

Thunder suddenly crashed, and the loud sound boomed down through the theatre's sound system. Kaori's grip on Tomo's arm tightened even more from the sudden fright and she leaned over closer to her chair, as she continued to nervously watch the film.

Back up on the screen, Ken looked up at the dark clouds from which the thunder had emanated. He then looked over to some distance back inside the cemetery where a man in a worn suit was limping along slowly among the graves.

Ken finished pulling his black, leather driving gloves onto his hands which he had taken from his pocket, and looked back down impatiently at his female companion who was still continuing to pray. "_Yeah,_ like god listens to you anymore, ya big slut."

"Shut your pie-hole," she shouted up at him before she finished her prayer.

"Do you remember one time when we were small, and we were out here," Ken recalled. "It was right over there," he said pointing across the cemetery close to where the lone man was shuffling along and moving in their direction. "When that old guy jumped out from behind that tree, exposed himself, and said, 'Look at these,'" he said impersonating the old man's voice. "Ha, remember that, right over there?" The girl got up and started walking away from him. "Well, you used to be really scared here."

"_Ken." _Her discomfort was overt in her voice.

Seeing her reaction he said, "_Well_, you're still afraid," obviously trying to get further under her skin.

"Stop it now, I mean it," she shouted at him.

A sinister smirk developed on his face. "_They're coming to get you, Sora_," he said in a creepy voice.

"Stop it! You're ignorant!"

"_They're coming for you, Sora," _he continued in that creepy voice as he grabbed onto a tombstone for dramatic effect.

"Stop it! You're acting like a child."

"_They're coming for you." _He then saw that the man he had spotted earlier was limping even closer. The details of his face could now begin to be seen. His skin was as white as ghost and his face was positively ghoulish._ "Look! There comes one of them now_."

"He'll hear you," Sora begged. The man kept walking in their direction, the space between him and the boy and girl becoming smaller and smaller.

"Here he comes now," Ken said as he grabbed Sora's shoulders. "I'm getting out of here!" He ran some distance away, and stopped in front of a particularly tall, obelisk-shaped tombstone. He then watched with a big grin on his face as the man with the torn suit, and un-naturally pale skin hobbled closer and closer to Sora. And that was the moment when from behind the tombstone, a female zombie with long, blonde hair appeared to bite deep down into Ken's neck, causing red blood to spray up out of it like a geyser.

"WAAAH!" Kaori screamed before she buried her head between Tomo's breasts. Tomo's lips curled up into a Cheshire grin as she cradled Kaori in her arms and continued to watch the movie.

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Two hours later, the exit to the theatre opened up into a warm night, lightly lit by the rays from a crescent moon. Out walked Tomo, who still had a broad smile on her face, and Kaori who was still trembling with white dots where her eyes once were.

"Wow, that movie was awesome," Tomo exclaimed. "My favorite part was when her left arm was bitten off, so then she swung it around with her right arm as a weapon. That was _so cool!_ What was your favorite part?"

"None of it. _I hated it._ It was the scariest and most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life."

"But it was romantic right," she asked with a mischievous grin.

"Romantic how? It was all about eating people's brains."

"_Awww_, come on, you liked it. You were all over me the _whole_ time. I think you were just using it as an excuse _to be in my arms_. Just admit it. I won't hold it against you."

Kaori blushed crimson. "_Well_… It was only because I was so scared."

"_Suuuuure_, I believe you. _Wink, wink."_ An utterly terrified expression then developed on Tomo's face. "Holy crap, there's a zombie behind you right now!"

"AH!" Kaori jumped around to see no one there.

She turned back around to see Tomo bent over from laughing so hard. "Oh my god, I can't believe you're so easy!"

"I am not!" Kaori tried frowning at her. The inadvertently cute expression just caused Tomo to crack up again.

"_They're coming to get you, Kaori_," Tomo said in her best impersonation of the spooky voice from the movie. "_They want to eat your brains_."

"Stop it Tomo!"

"_They're coming to get you, Kaori. Woooooooo," _she said wiggling her fingers in front of her face.

Having calmed down a bit from the fright, Kaori decided she was sick of being such a scaredy cat and would play along. "Stop it Tomo! You're ignorant," she said trying to mimic the actress's voice.

"_They're coming to get you, Kaori."_

"You're acting like a child!"

Tomo then grabbed her own right wrist, and started wiggling her right hand around like it had gained a mind of its own. "_Oh no_, I think I've contracted the zombie virus," she exclaimed. "I can't control myself anymore." Tomo then suddenly closed her eyes and dropped her head down to her chest.

Her head stayed down for several long moments, until Kaori came and pulled on her shoulder. "Tomo?"

Suddenly her head shot back up, causing Kaori to give a playful scream, and Tomo out-stretched her arms in front of her. "_I'm coming to get you Kaori. I'm going to eat you_!"

Kaori put her hands on her cheeks, and over-acted saying, "Oh no, what am I going to do. I better run away."

She sped down the side walk as fast as she could in her shoes, and Tomo started a pursuit still with her arms out stretched, "I'm coming to get you!"

"I thought zombies couldn't run," Kaori shouted behind her.

"I'm a magic zombie!"

They made they're way down a city block, zigzagging between other couples and the relatively fewer number of other unsuspecting pedestrians who were still on the street at this hour. Kaori was fast, but eventually Tomo put forth the effort to catch up. As she closed in, she reached forward and grabbed one of Kaori's round butt cheeks which elicited a loud squeal from her. Finally, Tomo lunged forward and wrapped her arms around her waist, Kaori just being able to use a near by lamp post to stop them from piling over into the concrete. "Gotcha!"

"Oh no, somebody help me," she said not too convincingly.

Tomo opened her mouth wide and then bit down on the back of her scalp.

"Ouch! That hurt," Kaori said before she gave her a mild punch in the shoulder in retaliation.

Tomo then knocked a couple times on the top of her skull. "Hmmm, seems kinda thick. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get my way through," she said. "Well, if I can't eat your brains, I'm just going to just have to settle for sucking your blood." She then moved her lips over to plant them on the side of Kaori's neck. Kaori gave another squeal before she pushed her off. "Oh come on, I know how much you like me sucking your blood."

"But if you leave another mark, I'm going to kill you." That's when she saw him. He was across the street. The lamp post he stood under illuminated his handsome, good looks. She could also see that Ichiro was boring directly into her with his eyes, and he looked absolutely furious.

"Hey, what's wrong, I didn't think I was that good," Tomo asked after she noticed that Kaori was trembling again and breathing in deeply. She was completely oblivious to the man behind her across the street.

"I… don't… know."

"Wow, you look horrible, even worse than in the movie." Tomo put her hand over forehead which was sweating profusely and then moved it over to her chest to feel her heart pounding forcefully. "What's wrong? Did the movie really scare you that much?"

Kaori nodded her head up and down a little bit.

"I didn't know you would get that scared." Ichiro gave her a final nasty scowl, before he walked away from them down the street and disappeared into a shroud of darkness.

"Me neither," Kaori finally let out.

"Hey, look, it'll be ok," Tomo said to her as she wrapped her arms back around her and pushed her fore-head up against Kaori's. "I'll protect you from zombies all night if you like."

After she said that an old lady walked by and gave them a real surprised look. "That's right ya old-bag! It's my job to protect Kaori from zombies," Tomo shouted at her. The elderly woman then started hobbling much faster down the side-walk to get away from them.

"Tomo! That was so mean," Kaori scolded her.

"But it was funny right?"

"Well, _yeah_." She managed a short giggle.

"Hey you want to hit some bars?"

"How about we just buy some wine and drink it at home instead? What you said about protecting me all night, that sure sounded nice."

"Ok." Tomo then took Kaori's hand and lifted it up to kiss the back of it. "I pledge myself to thee as your protector, my lady. I will defend thy honor to the death. I only ask for a small payment."

"And that is?"

"Carnal pleasures later in the evening."

"Oh, _I definitely agree_."

Tomo then started inspecting the area, and then shook her head. "This just won't do."

"What won't do?"

"This side-walk its way too cracked, what if my lady were to trip and fall on her head?" In reality it was perfectly smooth. "There's only one solution." She then got behind Kaori and attempted to scoop her off her feet. She succeeded in lifting her off the ground, and held her butt between her arms as Kaori held onto her shoulders. However, when she tried to step forward her arms began to buckle being too weak to handle the weight and they both fell backwards. "Ouch my butt!" Kaori then burst into laughter, having landed in her lap, and Tomo shortly joined in the laughing.

Kaori finally stopped laughing some time later, and removed a tear from the corner of her eye. "Thanks Tomo."

"Thanks for what?"

"For being such an idiot," she said gratefully.

"Wow, someone finally appreciates me." They both got another hardy laugh out of that.

"I really do appreciate you," Kaori said before she kissed her.

To Be Continued


	4. Chapter 4

Author's notes: Sorry for the really long delay. I hope this is worth the wait. The warnings I gave before the 1st chatper still apply. If you read please review.

Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Azumanga Daioh.

After

Chapter 4

The metal knob turned, and the door slowly crept open before Kaori entered her apartment. She looked around the room, hoping to see Tomo. It had become Tomo's habit to lunge at her, bury her in a warm embrace, and kiss her almost the second she came through the door home from work. Instead she was no where to be seen. Disappointed, she proceeded to hang her coat on the hanger, and slip off her shoes, which she placed near the door.

As she walked into the living room, she noticed something was extremely off. There was no open cereal box and bowl half full of milk left on the coffee-table in front of the TV. There were no miscellaneous articles of clothing strewn on the floor, nor were there any magazines or manga tankoubon on the couch. In fact, the room was bordering on immaculate.

She walked into the kitchen. The table was clear of any plates, silver-ware, cups, bowls, empty boxes, or half-eaten food. When she looked down at the floor and saw her own reflection staring back up at her from its shiny surface, a cold shiver went up her spine. There was only one logical conclusion, Tomo had either been kidnapped or murdered directly after Kaori had left for work.

Kaori then apprehensively crept into her bedroom, and when she saw her bed actually made, with clean sheets and blanket neatly tucked under both her and Tomo's pillows, she was over-whelmed with panic. She rushed towards her phone in order to call the police, and that's when a shadowy figure jumped out of her closet and tackled her to the ground.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Kaori's blood curdling scream lasted almost a full minute, until she reluctantly peeked open her right eye to see the face of her killer. She was instead greeted by Tomo's big eyes and pretty face which now had a huge, mischievous smirk on it.

Before she could react, Tomo swooped down and planted a wet kiss on her lips. "Mwah! Kaori, I got back from my interview, and guess what?" she asked talking very fast, obviously excited.

Kaori finally caught her breath several seconds later and was able to let out, "What?"

"They were so impressed by me, they hired me on the spot!"

"Wow, really?"

"Hell yeah!"

"What's your position?"

"On top of you."

Kaori rolled her eyes. "No. What's the title of your new job?"

"Oh. I'm now officially a Custodial Engineer," Tomo stated with no small amount of pride.

"I'm so proud of you," Kaori said sincerely.

"Does that mean I get fish tacos?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes. As many as you want."

Tomo quirked a sneaky eye-brow. "What about sex?"

"That too."

Tomo stared down into Kaori's eyes. She could tell that she was trying desperately hard to be happy for her. However, Tomo could also sense the pain that was still lingering in them, and she knew why.

"I love you, Kaori."

"I love you too, Tomo."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi, Kaori, thanks for coming," the ugly, callous looking man in the dark suit greeted her with his deep, gravelly voice.

"Good morning, Mr. Sakai," she answered him very timidly as she entered through the door into the small office.

"Please, call me Jiro."

"Ok," she said as he pushed the large door behind her. It creaked eerily, until it closed shut and made an ominously loud sound that to Kaori was closest to a gun shot.

"I will be your interviewer today and Taka will be helping me take notes," he said referring to the pudgy man with dark, beady eyes sitting in a chair adjacent to the desk, holding a pad and pencil. He waved to her, and Kaori replied to him with a really nervous smile.

"Please have a seat and make yourself comfortable." She sat down in the small, wooden chair in front of the desk, but she looked no where near comfortable. "Would you like something to drink? Maybe some tea or coffee?"

"No, thank you."

Jiro sat behind the desk, leaned slightly back in his leather office chair, and then continued as Taka started scribbling notes loudly with his pencil, "Now, I understand that you recently filed a sexual harassment complaint. Is that true?"

Kaori opened her lips, but no words came out. She tried again, but still wasn't even able to articulate a sound. She then looked at the two cruel looking men who were staring at her tentatively, and a bead of sweat ran down her forehead as they continued to bore into her with their eyes. She turned away from them and looked down at her shoes and the tiles on the floor. She thought for a moment that she should explain it all had been a mistake, that he had never touched her. Maybe that would be the best thing to do. Maybe it wasn't worth it after all.

But then she felt something, a feeling she wasn't used to. She could feel it deep in her core. It was almost like a pit of strength had been growing there without her knowledge, and some how that's all she needed to go on. "Yes, it's true."

"Ok," Jiro said, sounding a bit surprised that she had finally answered. "And would please tell us who you identified as your harasser?"

"Ichiro Tashiro," Kaori said with no hesitation.

"Kaori, what exactly is your relationship with Ichiro?"

"He's the manager of the division I work in. He's my boss. That's it."

"How long has this harassment been occurring?"

"It started about 4 months ago and has been going on until now."

"Ok… Can you maybe give me specific times and places where it occurred, and describe to me exactly what happened between you. Take as much time as you need."

"Last night I typed it all on my computer and printed it out. Is it ok if I give that to you instead?"

"Sure, that would be fine."

Kaori reached forward and handed over the 7 sheets of paper she had been gripping in her sweaty, trembling palm. Jiro looked surprised at the sheer amount of text, but started reading through it immediately. Kaori watched as his expression slowly changed from one of intrigue to one of disgust and anger as his eyes scanned the words back and forth. Several minutes later, he finally finished the last page. "And all of this is true?"

"Every word of it."

"Do you mind if I make copies of this?"

"You can keep it."

"Kaori, what you described here isn't just harassment, its sexual assault. I'm definitely going to start an investigation immediately, but I think you should also go to the police."

"I've been considering it."

"Well, I think you should. I also wish you would've reported this much earlier. This certainly shouldn't have gone on as long as it did. It shouldn't have happened at all."

"I guess I didn't respect myself enough before to do anything about it, but I think I feel differently now."

"Well, I'm gong to go a bit off the record here…" Taka getting the message ceased writing. Jiro then went on, "But with where and when you described these encounters, it should just be a matter of going over some of the surveillance footage from the cameras we have hidden in the building. And I don't care what their position or reputation is in the company. If I find any evidence of something like this happening, that person will be out of here, period." Jiro could see a deep look of relief was spreading over the woman's face. "Is there anything else you would like to ask or tell me about?"

"No, I think that's it."

"Well, Kaori, I think I'm going to give you the ok to take the rest of the day off. You definitely don't deserve to be put anywhere near Ichiro again until this is sorted out, which should be soon. Give me a call tomorrow morning and I'll tell you about any temporary work assignments or anything else we decide."

"Ok."

"I also want you to alert us if you sense any kind of retaliation by anyone in the office because of the harassment complaint. We don't tolerate that kind of thing here."

"Sure."

"Well, I think this about wraps it up. You try to have a good day, Kaori, and stay safe."

"Thank you, Jiro. You have a nice day, too," she said as she waved to the two men and opened the door herself to leave the office.

As soon as she turned the first corner in the hall way, she saw him leaning against the wall. He gave her the nastiest stare he could conjure from his otherwise good looks. Obviously, Ichiro had been waiting there for her. Kaori just stood petrified as he continued to give her a look that seemed symbolic of a death sentence. However, when some other employees appeared down the hallway, he turned and left.

A bit shaken, Kaori went and retrieved her coat from the rack and slipped it on quickly. She then sprinted to the elevator just before the door slid shut. Soon she was out of the building and onto the crowed city street. She looked behind herself paranoid, but couldn't spot Ichiro's face among any of the street walkers behind her. To be sure she stood and watched the building's door ways for several minutes to make sure he didn't exit them. She never saw him.

"It's finally over," she said to herself as an exhilarating sensation washed over her. Satisfied, she started walking down the side walk again. However, unbeknownst to Kaori, a figure who had been hiding from her, looked out from behind the corner of an alley to make sure she was gone.

A few moments later Ichiro exited the building. Even only being out on the street for seconds, a few women passing by gawked at the tall man's devilishly handsome good looks. However, he simply ignored them being too preoccupied with the visions of graphic violence playing out in his head. Also burning in his memory was the address of the one he wished to maim. He had obtained it earlier that day as a favor from a female Human Resources employee he had been having sex with for several weeks. He stopped walking in the direction of the address though when he felt a hard tug on the sleeve of his suit coat. He turned around to see someone with a red hood pulled over his or her head.

"Hey, are you Ichiro Tashiro?" the female voice asked.

"Yes."

"Finally," she said. This had been the 12th man she had asked that question.

He just stared at her looking confused for a moment. "I'm sorry, could you take off that hood? I can't quite recognize you."

She pulled back the hood, fully revealing her round face and head of pointy locks of hair. "I'm sorry, I still don't recognize you" he lied. He recognized Tomo instantly from the night almost two weeks ago. "Have we met before?"

"_Awww_, you really don't remember me? I met you at that crazy party a few months back. _We had a good time._ Don't tell me you drank so much you forgot all about little, old me?"

"Honestly, I wish I could remember someone as beautiful as you," he said showing a bit of his white teeth.

"_He, he_," Tomo gave a really, girly giggle. "Well, I _sure_ remember you. Hey! I got an idea. How about we get some privacy? You know so we can get reacquainted. I have to get somewhere, but I think I have time to give you _an oral compliment_," Tomo said as she gave him a big wink. Before he could respond Tomo pulled on his coat sleeve again and lead him into the near by secluded alley. They walked some distance under the shadows of the two monstrous buildings until they were a decent ear-shot away from the street.

Finally, they stopped, and the stupid smirk on Tomo's face instantly evaporated. "Here's, you're compliment, ASSHOLE!" she yelled at him as she extended her middle finger in front of his face. "I'm Kaori's friend, and I'm telling you if you don't leave her alone, I'm calling the police and having you locked up. So you better knock it off unless you want to be some guy's bitch."

Ichiro burst into laughter. Tomo looked absolutely furious at his response, but was also perplexed by the disturbing edge of his laughs. "That's hilarious. Listen I know exactly who you are, and you're not doing anything about it. The police won't listen to someone who won't talk to them. If she really wanted me to stop, she would've done it _long _ago. "

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course she wants you to stop. She cries about it almost everyday. She tries to hide it from me, but I still know she hurts. I try really hard to cheer her up, but I can only keep her happy for so long. Kaori is a really good girl, what you're doing to her is sick! Leave her alone!"

"No, I don't think I will. I have too much fun with her. How she plays hard to get and acts like she doesn't want it, that just turns me on more. _I love it_. But deep down, I know how much she likes it."

"Yeah, she likes it so much she went directly to me, _a woman_. Can't even compete with the girls, huh? What a _fucking_ loser you are."

"_What did you say,_" Ichiro asked through gritted teeth.

Tomo saw from his infuriated expression that she had pressed the right buttons. "Yeah, you heard me. I can please her and you can't. That must make me twice the man you are, and I have a vagina!"

Like a lightning strike, the back of Ichiro's hand impacted Tomo's head so hard, that it ripped the ring out of her left ear and sent it and some blood flying down the alley. Tomo tried to run, but he lunged forward and wrapped his large hands around her neck before she could get away. He then slammed her forcefully against the brick wall and began to squeeze. Tomo tried to break free, but he was just too strong. She then resisted by punching him with her fists, but her blows to his stomach and chest were relatively weak, and he barely reacted to them. Pretty soon she didn't even have the strength to punch at all.

"First, I'm going to make you suffer. And after you're dead, I'm going to go back to her apartment and rape that slut. And after I've had all the fun I've wanted with her, she's going to die for even thinking she could tell on me."

"No… please… don't… leave her alone," Tomo was barely able to beg through the strangulation.

"Not a chance," he said as he removed one hand from her neck, moved it down, and slipped it inside her pants, as he kept her firmly planted to the wall with the other.

"You… won't get… away wit it…"

"I get whatever I want," he stated coldly as he tightened his grip to silence her.

Meanwhile, Kaori was still walking on her way home. Her walk felt much easier than it had for months, almost like a heavy cross had been removed from her back. In fact it felt down-right pleasant. The cool air felt nice on her cheeks, the sunlit sky line above the city looked beautiful, and even the sounds of heavy traffic sounded much nicer some how. However, helping create her pleasantness more so than anything was the excitement she felt from thinking about going home to see Tomo again and telling her the good news. Just the thought of it caused her to smile widely.

Being quite excited, she preemptively reached over to her side to dig through her purse for the key to her apartment. But when she felt around her hip and waist, she realized it wasn't even on her shoulder. She must've been in such a hurry to leave that she left it at the office. She turned around to walk back but stopped when the recent memory of Ichiro's viscous stare re-entered her mind. The cold shiver it sent up her spine was enough to make her consider leaving it there until tomorrow.

However, she felt that new feeling muster from within herself again to combat the fear. "No, I can't be afraid of him anymore," she told herself as she started marching back. Pretty soon she was back on the crowded sidewalk that the sky scraper representing the Daitokuji Financial Group's corporate headquarters towered over.

However, she stopped moving along with the crowd when she saw something shiny on the sidewalk. She usually didn't stop to look at things on the ground, but whatever it was looked oddly familiar some how. She was so intrigued by it, that she leaned down and picked it up between her fingers. It was a tiny ornament that was covered in some red substance. The red caused the sun-light refracted by the small stone on it to be dimmed. She then caressed it with her thumb until the blood rubbed off, revealing the shimmering blue sapphire underneath.

"It's the ear-ring I bought Tomo," Kaori said stunned, very confused to what her present to Tomo for getting her new job was doing there. She then felt a tug on her shoulder. When she turned to see who it was, no one was there. However, she noticed something odd off in the distance of the direction she had turned. Deep down the alley it looked like a man was pushed up against a woman. They looked to be lovers, but the odd placement of one of his hands around her neck seemed really strange. She started walking down the alley in their direction to get a better look, and her eyes widened once she realized the grim reality of who they were and what he was doing to her.

Her heart started pounding as she scrambled to think of what to do. She then noticed the garbage can she was standing next too, and she pulled off the lid. With the lid in hand, she ran down the dark alley and let out a feral scream. "Get you're hands OFF OF HER!" Ichiro only had enough time to turn and see Kaori the moment before the steel disc swung up and collided with the temple on the side of his head. Ichiro's eyes rolled back in his head, and his grip on Tomo loosened, allowing her to slump to the ground out of his grasp. Ichiro then tipped over like a chopped tree to slam face first into the concrete dead.

Kaori dropped the lid and ran over Ichiro to lean down and put her hands on Tomo's shoulders as she lay slumped on the floor. The terribly battered girl seemed to have been lost in a daze but she looked up when she heard a familiar voice call out her name. Once Tomo saw her face, her lips curled up in a smile, a stark contrast to the dark bruises on her face and neck, and two trails of tears ran down her cheeks. "Kh…kh… kh… Kaori," she managed to articulate in an incredibly scratchy voice after much effort.

"Tomo, Tomo, Tomo are you ok?" Kaori asked her again still very much panicking.

"Jus… jussa… scratch," she said before she gagged and a decent amount of crimson blood bubbled up from her throat and down her chin.

Thinking quickly, Kaori dug into Tomo's front pant pocket where she usually kept her cell phone and extracted it to call for an ambulance.

"Tomo everything is going to be ok, I promise. The ambulance is coming," she told her as she wrapped her arms around her on the ground, trying to give her as much reassuring comfort as she possibly could. Tomo looked into the woman's incredibly kind eyes, which were now filled with tears out of concern for her pain and safety. She wanted desperately to tell her how much she loved her one more time. But as she tried to move her lips, she suddenly found she was unable to do so. Kaori then vanished from her sight as everything around Tomo was buried in a black shroud of darkness.

To Be Continued


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait again. From now on when there is internal monologue (a character talking to her self through thought) it will be in italics by itself. If I use italics inside quotation marks, it's to indicate a change in tone of voice or words the character is emphasizing.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated with Azumanga Daioh.

After

Chapter 5

"I'm home!" proclaimed the seventeen year old girl named Tomo as she burst through the door. She had on her dull pink colored top with white collar and her rust colored skirt, the standard girls' uniform she had to wear every other school day. She waited for a moment at the door way. Despite her loud announcement, there was no response from her mother, grandfather, or little brother, all of whom she knew were roaming about the house somewhere. "Ok, you can save the celebration for later!" Tomo shouted. She then dropped her school bag near the door where it usually remained until the next day, before she sprinted up the stairs and into her bedroom.

No sooner than had she closed the door, her shoes were kicked off, her skirt dropped to the floor, and her top was pulled right off her head to be thrown across the room to the wall. This only left her pink bra, pink panties, and also pink socks to cover her developed teenage body. Wasting no time at all, she went over to her dresser and pulled out the middle drawer to find a pair of blue jeans. She pulled the tight jeans up her slender legs, over her slightly rounded butt, and then zipped up and buttoned the crotch in almost record timing. Next, she flung open her closet and flipped through all her hanging t-shirts until she found the white one with dark-blue sleeves and the word "Wild" ironed on it. It was a bit faded now, being almost a year old, but it was still one of her favorites. She yanked it right off the hanger and then pulled it down over her head of dark, pointy, curved locks, which then snapped right back into their pine tree like formation almost like magic.

Despite seemingly being in a rush, she did find there was time to stop in front of the mirror and marvel at her own perceived beauty. "I'm one _sexy_ bitch!" she declared before she gave the girl in the mirror a big wink and then pretended to swoon. She then started searching through all the trash and miscellaneous articles of clothing on the floor, looking for her new, blue jacket. Finally, she spotted it near the corner. She picked it up, and slipped her arms inside the sleeves, leaving the front open and unzipped.

She ran out her door, with the intention of bolting down the stairs and straight out of the house. However, as she reached the first stair down, for some reason she stopped and stepped backwards. She then walked down to the end of the hallway and stopped in front of a particular, closed door. She looked at it for a moment before speaking. "Mom, I'm going over to Yomi's." There was no answer from the other side. "Hey, I know you're in there!" There was still no response. "Actually, I lied, I'm going to go sell crack on the street corner and then use the proceeds to buy a Walther-P38, so I can assassinate the prime minister… All right, see ya!"

Soon Tomo was outdoors and cheerfully marching down the street singing very off key, "La la la la la la _laaaa_!" She continued this joyful tune, waving to strangers as she strolled along, until she made it to her destination. It was a decent sized home, especially for the economic conditions of the neighborhood. It wasn't as impressive as Chiyo's "mansion" of course, but it was much nicer than Tomo's undeniably.

However, the only thing that caught her eye was a particular window on the first story. She went over to it and tapped lightly on it twice. This was a custom that now held very little meaning since the window was rarely latched shut, and she never waited for a reply anyways. Immediately, Tomo pushed the pane of glass to the right. She then proceeded to hop her butt up on the window sill, slip her shoes off her feet which fell to the grass below, and then climb inside the room.

Tomo opened her mouth to greet Koyomi, but closed it again when she saw her laying there. She was still in her sailor uniform, all sprawled out on her bed, with her eyes closed and her large chest moving up and down in rhythm to her snoring. Seeing that she wasn't wearing her glasses, Tomo turned and saw they had been placed on top of her dresser. They must've been the only thing she bothered taking off before she fell into bed.

"_Awww_, all tuckered out, huh, Yomi?" The previous night the two had been trying hard to study for an exam. Well, at least Koyomi had been. Tomo of course had taken advantage of every opportunity to get distracted from the task at hand by the TV, Koyomi's magazines, her pencil, or anything else she could find. She was also doing everything in her power to break Koyomi's concentration, much to her extreme annoyance. She must've been up all night after she left just to make up for the time she had undoubtedly cost her.

Instead of feeling any kind of remorse, a barrage of evil thoughts shot into Tomo's mind as she realized the opportunity that lay before her. She crept over to her work desk which was still covered with math problem scratch paper from the night before, and pulled out one of drawers underneath it. From inside she extracted a black, felt-tip marker. She pulled the cap off of it and then stared at it like she had unsheathed the blade of a sword. "Should've latched your window," Tomo said before she snickered evilly, but not loudly enough to stir the unsuspecting sleeper. Tomo then tip toed towards the bed and sat down softly on the edge. Koyomi's head lay on a scrunched up pillow towards the corner of the bed furthest away from her, so Tomo had to lie down next to her and then lean over her to get in the right position.

_This is going to be hilarious!_ Tomo thought to herself as her sinister smirk widened even more. She then gazed down at the completely peaceful and unsuspecting expression on Koyomi's face. She was trying to make the tough decision between giving her a simple, Hitler style moustache over her dimples or drawing a more elaborate curly styled moustache that would encompass those round cheeks as well. However, as she moved in closer with the marker in hand, soon she wasn't even thinking about that all. It was almost like she had become hypnotized just by looking at the sleeping girl's face.

She would never admit it to her or anyone else, mostly because it would contradict her ruthless teasing which derived her so much pleasure, but she had always thought Koyomi was cute. Sure most people wouldn't call her that. She was tall, had sizeable breasts, and long brown hair, but still most people would've described her as average or plain looking at best. But Tomo didn't care. Her standards were the only ones that mattered, and to her Koyomi was undeniably cute. And while she thought she was cute normally, without her glasses on she looked almost angelic as she laid there, eyes closed, as she continued to emit little snores. The feeling of Koyomi's warm breath blowing across Tomo's face from those snores sent an electric sensation all the way down her spine. It felt absolutely heavenly.

Tomo moved her face even closer to get an even better look, and her heart was now pounding wildly. She looked at her two supple lips, which were slightly parted to allow out her warm breath and now only a few inches away. Tomo knew what she wanted to do. She had gotten this urge many times before over the years. Some how she was able to control it then, but now the temptation seemed even stronger than before. It would be so easy to kiss her. Maybe she could do it without her even waking up. Maybe she could just steal one, little kiss and she would never know. But then again, what if she did wake up? How would she react? Would she hate her? Would she be glad as she had hoped for years? She didn't know the answer.

She did know that Koyomi was obsessed with controlling her weight. After taunting her about it, she did specify a few times that she wanted to be thin to attract boys. But even if she liked boys, could it be possible that she liked girls too, even if it was just one girl? She didn't know, but damn she wanted to kiss her. She hadn't even had her first kiss yet, and as far back as she could remember, she couldn't think of anyone other than Koyomi to give it to her.

Tomo had been tagging along with "Yomi" since they were both little. They had so many happy, fun times together. And through out all the years, she had been the person who was there for her. She was the one she talked to when ever she had a problem. Although Koyomi claimed otherwise, she seemed to understand her better than anyone. In fact, she seemed to be the person who genuinely cared for her well-being the most, even more so than her own parents. And even though she tried her hardest at times to annoy her, Koyomi never left her. That was something Tomo quietly appreciated immensely.

In reality, Koyomi seemed to be the only thing that mattered to Tomo at all. Everything else she laughed off as a joke, but losing her friendship was one of the few things that sometimes frightened her. She would always fight to keep it, even if that meant continuing to keep her true feelings bottled up.

Tomo pulled her face away from Koyomi's, and got off the bed. "Maybe I should go for a walk," she said to herself, still making sure not to talk loud enough to wake the slumbering girl. She put the cap back on the marker and dropped it on the ground, before she crawled back out the window.

"I have to stop thinking about Yomi like that, she's my best friend," Tomo said trying to straighten herself out as she walked back down the block. She stopped when she was back in front of her house. "_Neh_." Instead, she impulsively decided to go wander around downtown to find something to distract her mind.

She walked past several more houses and apartment complexes on her way to town, until she heard a very peculiar noise. Very curious, she stopped and walked down an alley in its direction. As she closed in on the sound, it became clear that it was a girl crying. Not only that, the voice was extremely familiar.

As she reached the end of the alley, she looked around the corner and saw the girl sitting on a bench. She was bent over and covering her eyes with her hands. She was crying so hard that Tomo could make out the accumulated liquid of her tears as it dripped from between her fingers to splash into a small puddle on the concrete below.

"How could Ms. Sakaki ever love someone like me," the girl asked herself pathetically. "I'll never be good enough for her, never. Why am I so stupid?"

_Oh, Kaorin_.

It broke Tomo's heart to see her like this. She had figured out Kaori was head over heels for Sakaki years ago, as had most people at school. She was so obvious, how could anyone not? Tomo giggled with the rest about it and made a few jokes of her own when she wasn't around. It was even funnier that Sakaki was completely oblivious to the whole thing and not really as "cool" as she thought she was. But even though she laughed about it, she had always been silently rooting for her. She really hoped she would somehow get her some day. When ever Kaori talked about "Ms. Sakaki" there was always such pleasure in her eyes. Even if she went hilariously overboard often, she couldn't help but feel some of that joy herself when she expressed those completely pure and innocent emotions. Anyone who would be on the receiving end of a love like that was no doubt a very lucky person. Tomo never knew that underneath it all lay despair this deep.

"So stupid," Kaori scolded herself again in-between sobs. She stood there and watched as Kaori continued to weep pathetically into her hands, completely unaware to the fact she wasn't alone.

Tomo considered going up and sitting next to her. She imagined she would tap her on the shoulder, and when she looked up with watery eyes and a tear stained face she would greet her with a big smile. Since it was the only thing she had with her, Tomo would take off the jacket she was wearing, and use its sleeve to pad her tear drenched cheeks dry.

She wanted to tell her that even if Sakaki didn't want her that it would be ok. She would tell her that she was really cute, very nice, and smart to boot. Finding someone else just as good or better would be a piece of cake. Kaori would say she didn't believe her, that she was just being nice. Tomo then imagined draping her arm over the girl while she continued to tell her that she was wrong, she was all those things and more, and that she really did deserve better than this.

Despite her efforts, Kaori would continue to cry, but she would combat this by wrapping her other arm around her and pulling her close. She imagined squeezing Kaori's small, petite frame against herself to the point where she could feel her heart beating in rhythm with her own. She would then brush up against one of those soft, cute cheeks before she whispered in her ear that she wouldn't let go until she was happy again. Upon hearing that, Kaori would pull her head away to give Tomo a look with those saucer-like eyes, a look she had previously saved only for Sakaki. She then watched as Kaori curled her lips up into that smile she liked so much, before she puckered them and planted them against Tomo's.

Suddenly, however, Tomo's day-dream was shattered by a vision of Koyomi's glasses wearing face that flashed inside her mind to give her an ominous stare. Tomo was now firmly back in reality, still standing in the alley, never having approached the bench or the crying girl. Tomo placed her hand over her chest and realized that her heart was racing madly again. She felt excited by what she had imagined about her and Kaori, but also very guilty at the same time.

"No, I can't," Tomo said as she walked away, back down the alley. As she left she looked back regretfully in the direction of the girl who had never noticed her presence and was still weeping her heart out. "I hope you get her some day, Kaorin. You really deserve it."

Tomo kept walking, zigzagging through alleys and streets, a path she had traveled innumerous times over the years. She tried singing that song again, but she found her heart wasn't in it at all. She just didn't feel right, something she didn't feel very often. That guilty, uneasy sensation she felt earlier was still gnawing at her stomach, but she didn't know why. She tried hard to ignore it, and soon she partially succeeded by being distracted by the towering glass skyscrapers and crowds of men and women scurrying around in suits that was the commercial district of town.

After making her way upstream through the mass of suits for several minutes, she finally made it to the strip of smaller buildings she had been searching for. She passed by many shops and stands, looking at the toys, manga, computer games, and other wares for sale, while smelling the sweet aroma coming from a melon-bun stand ahead.

She then spotted her favorite arcade. "Yeah, that's it!" Spending an afternoon blasting aliens and bouncing pachinko balls around seemed like the perfect remedy to raise her spirits again. However, as she neared the entrance, she suddenly felt lonely. "I wish Yomi was here." She momentarily thought about calling her and telling her to come down, but she decided to let her sleep. "I wish anyone was here." She then considered trying to find someone else to come with her, but instead she just decided to go it alone.

She pushed through the swinging door. However, once she stepped inside, she was surprised to see no one was playing the games. This arcade was a very popular one and was usually packed to the brim with people, but now it was completely abandoned. Further more, none of the games were even turned on and were instead just sitting there lifeless under the dim lighting.

"You're closed?" Tomo asked very confused. It was usually open until early in the morning except for a few, select holidays. The fact that it would be closed so soon after school let out seemed extremely odd, not to mention they hadn't bothered to lock the doors.

Quite annoyed, Tomo turned to leave but walked face first into a brick wall.

"The fuck?" she asked while gripping her throbbing forehead. The door had seemingly vanished from right behind her, leaving nothing but a bare wall.

She was still trying to make sense of where the door had gone when she heard hysterical laughter from behind her. The specific sound of these laughs sent a cold shiver down her spine. _That voice?_

Tomo turned around to see the shadowy figure of a girl bent over, holding her knees from laughing so hard. "What a moron!" the girl said in between the laughs.

"Who are you?" Tomo asked extremely suspiciously.

The girl shot up and pointed her index finger in the air victoriously to proclaim, "I'm Tomo Takino! Being energetic is the one thing I'm better at than anybody else! The wildcat high school girl!" A spot light suddenly switched on to shine down on her from above as she continued to hold the same pose, pointing upwards.

The bright light also revealed the features of this mysterious woman. She was about Tomo's height. She wore baggy jeans and a red sweatshirt, which had a hood that was pulled over her head. From under the hood several long curved, pointy locks of dark hair crept out around a disturbingly familiar face. She looked perhaps several years older and much thinner, but otherwise it was like Tomo was looking into a mirror. However despite the haunting resemblance to her self, there was one huge contrast. That was her eyes, which shone a disturbingly bright, blood-red light.

"You're not! Stop lying! You can't be me!"

"I am Tomo, and you're _stupid, stupid, stupid_." She said perfectly mimicking one of Tomo's favorite methods of taunting.

"You're not me!"

"Yes I am!" she retorted cheerfully. "And you're still _stupid, stupid, stupid_!"

"Stop that!"

"_Stupid, stuuupid, stupid, stuuupid stupid stuuuupid_!" The hooded Tomo kept taunting as she started dancing around, waving her arms, and shaking her butt, as the spot light followed her everywhere she moved.

"I'll show you who's stupid, you bitch!" Tomo ran forward and swung for her. However, the punch missed as the hooded Tomo dodged to the side out of the way of her first with uncanny agility.

Tomo just stared at her in complete disbelief, as the double stuck out her tongue and pulled down an eyelid below one of the eerie, glowing orbs. "_Stupid, stupid, stupid_!" she taunted yet again.

"I told you to shut the fuck UP!" Tomo ran for her again and dived with open arms. But the double avoided the tackle by jumping 10 feet straight up in the air. She then flipped her body 360 degrees in mid-air and then landed gracefully on both feet on the spot light next to Tomo, who was now groaning in pain on the ground.

Tomo looked up from the floor to see her doppelganger staring down at her with those evil, crimson eyes and a sickening grin, before she cracked up into delirious laughter again.

"Hey, I got an idea! I'm going to challenge you, the idiot, to contend against me, the beautiful, magnificent, Tomo, the Great, in a race!"

"Fuck you," Tomo growled as she finally pulled herself up from the ground. She then spat out some blood which had been seeping from the gash in her tongue that had been bitten open when she landed on her chin.

"You're just mad, because you know you can't catch me. It's not my fault that through a miracle of nature and science, I was born with the blood of the mighty cheetah running through these very veins."

"If I catch you I'm going to stick my foot straight up your ass."

That comment caused the woman's disturbing grin to curl up even more and her eyes to glow an even brighter shade of red. "So does that mean you accept my challenge?"

"Yes!"

"Ok, on the count of 3… 3!" The red Tomo sped off into the distance, the spot light still following her.

"I'll make you regret this, you faker!" Tomo yelled as she began a pursuit. She ran with her eyes centered on the red target, weaving her way in-between derelict video-games and claw machines, through the darkened building. She got close to snagging her a few times, but each time the red Tomo sped up faster to move just out of the reach of her fingers. It was almost like she had eyes in the back of her head.

Also strange was the fact that this arcade was seemingly several times larger than what she remembered. In fact, it seemed to stretch on forever, like an endless labyrinth. But just as this fact was beginning to seriously disturb her, she spotted a door ahead under a bright red sign reading, "Exit."

Just before they made it to the door, Tomo finally grabbed a hold of the girl's sweat shirt with a firm grip. As the doppelganger continued to run forward, Tomo pulled hard backwards. However, as she did so the sweatshirt ripped off of her body like the old exoskeleton of an insect, leaving another identical, red sweatshirt underneath. Tomo fell on her ass and then watched as the fabric in her hands shriveled into moth-eaten rags and then disintegrated further into a fine dust. The dust was blown out of her fingers by a gust of cold wind from the now open door.

"Told ya, you couldn't catch me!" the other Tomo taunted as she stood in the open door-way. Her second, blood-red sweatshirt and the crimson glow from her eyes stood out against the apparent sudden darkness outside. "There can only be one winner. If you think you can be a runner up, you're _stuuuupid. _If you were smart, you would've played a different game." She then stuck her tongue out again, before she pushed through the door to the outside. The spot light switched off as soon as she left.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Tomo howled as she jumped up and charged through the door.

Outside, it was not only dark and cold, it was almost a pitch black void. Tomo couldn't see anything. She turned around to go back inside, but couldn't see or feel the door anymore. She then heard the crashing roar of thunder. The lightning strike hit a hill some distance away, but it illuminated the outdoors long enough that she got a glimpse of a path and the red, hooded figure running away from her down that road. A second later it was dark again, but Tomo decided to blindly chase after her anyways.

She was sprinting through the darkness in the direction she had seen her, when she heard thunder clash again before another huge lightning bolt struck into the ground even closer to her left. Again it illuminated the red figure moving ahead. She was only about 15 feet away now. It returned back to the black void, and she charged forward as hard as she could. A few moments later another monstrous lightning bolt shot down from the heavens to split into two and blast the surface to both sides of Tomo. She now saw that she was right behind her. She swiped for her neck just as the flash of light ended. She didn't feel her neck though, her hand instead impacted something rock solid.

At that moment in the sky, some of the black clouds drifted away to reveal an unnaturally blue moon. The rays of this moon shined down on Tomo, to bathe her and her surroundings in a blue light. Tomo removed her hand from the stone. She could see now that it was a stone gate, an entrance way. She passed through it, and thanks to the moon beams, she could see the endless, crowded rows of chiseled stone monuments, in front of tall, pop-sickle shaped wooden boards. Obviously, she had wandered into a graveyard. She then heard that voice, eerily similar to her own, laugh again.

"Where are you?" Tomo asked really starting to get scared.

"Over here moron," the disturbing voice shouted at her from some distance away. It then began laughing madly again. Tomo followed the sound of the laughter as she walked down one of the rows, between the grave markers. As she walked the laughs became louder and louder, causing her skin to crawl ever more. It rose in volume to the point that Tomo was sure that it was coming from right behind her. She turned to see no one there and the laughter suddenly ceased.

"Show your self!" she yelled. The voice never answered her.

She looked at the grave in front of her to see if she was hiding behind it. That's when she glanced the words on the stone block. They were the kanji for Takino. "It's the family grave," she realized.

She then spotted the two sobata, wooden stakes, standing behind it. "Who died?" she wondered. Last she remembered the ashes of her grandmother were the only ones to be laid to rest there so far. She read the characters down the board. It was a relatively short kaimayo, a Buddhist name given to those who have died to prevent them from returning from the dead. It was written in kanji that Tomo couldn't read. She then leaned down next the tomb to see if the name had been inscribed there. She only saw her grandmother's name chiseled in the stone, but then she watched as each character for the name Tomo appeared one by one under it, pulsating a blood-red glow.

"No, you're wrong, I'm not dead!" she yelled at the tomb as a few rain droplets splashed on her head from above. They were followed by a heavy, poring rain that quickly drenched Tomo and the graveyard. Tomo fell to her feet and clutched her knees, still trying to reassure herself, "It can't be true. It just can't."

She then saw a vision of Kaori in the rain drops. She was still sitting on that bench all alone and still drowning in her own sorrow. Seeing that again hurt Tomo like nothing else.

"Kaori, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I made a terrible mistake. I should've never left you. Please forgive me, Kaori. I beg you, please forgive me," Tomo cried out into the rain even though she couldn't see her anymore. "You're the one I want. I know that now. It's the truth. All I want is to be with you. I just want to see you again, Kaori. That's all I want. I changed my mind, I want to live. I want to live, god damn it! You hear me!"

At that moment the rain stopped, and the clouds parted. Tomo then looked up to see that the sun was creeping up over the horizon. As it rose, its brilliant rays blanketed her in a warm, yellow light.

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The dark abyss that had surrounded Tomo began to give way to colors. The colors were very fuzzy and undefined at first. However, soon they began to become clearer, and their outlines more precise, as they took the shape of the one she loved most.

"Tomo…," Kaori said as she continued to hold her hand and gaze into her with those incredibly kind eyes, which she had been doing for hours from her chair on the side of Tomo's hospital bed.

"Kaghhhh…," Tomo tried to say her name, but the sound that came out of her mouth was hoarse and undecipherable.

"Tomo, Tomo, please don't," Kaori said gripping her shoulder. "The doctor said you're not supposed to talk for two weeks. You have to let your throat heal until then."

Tomo felt around her neck to feel the thick neck-brace that surrounded it. Not yet deterred, she instead decided to silently move her lips to try to communicate those three words she desperately wanted to say.

"I love you too, Tomo," Kaori said, before she used her finger to wipe out the tears that were collecting in the corners of her eyes. "I love you so much."

Tomo just continued gazing back at Kaori, until she blinked, thinking she was seeing double. It looked like a second Kaori had just crept up behind the first one. They both had the same angular hair-cut and those same big eyes. However, upon closer inspection, the lines on the face of the second woman made her look more than 20 years older.

"Hi, Tomo," the woman greeted her in a kind and reassuring voice.

"Miithiisss…" Tomo tried to speak again but failed.

"Oh, sweetie, please don't," the woman begged as she ran up and also placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, Tomo, you don't have to say anything. My daughter already explained everything to me. Even though I could never thank you enough for what you did, standing up for Kaori like that, I still want to say thank you, Tomo. Thank you so much. And I must say I'm very glad my daughter found a girl as pretty, young, and upstanding as you to be her girlfriend. She made a quite a catch, I think. As far as I'm concerned you're now part of the family." Those words caused the lips on Tomo's half bruised face to arch up into a wide, contagious smile that seemed to brighten up the entire room.

Kaori's mother then looked over at her daughter and saw the tears rolling down both her cheeks. She then put her hand on her stomach. "Oh my, I think my tummy's growling. You know what? I think I'm going to go down the street to find something to eat."

"You're such a ham, mommy," Kaori said before sniffling a small giggle.

"Oh, am I?" she asked winking at her daughter. She then got up, slipped on her coat, and grabbed her purse. "Ok, I'll be back soon. You want anything, dear?"

"No, thank you. I'm still full."

"Ok, honey. I'm sorry, I'd bring you something, Tomo, but you have to stick to your I.V. for a while. But I promise once you're well, I'm going to have you and Kaori over so I can make you a feast. Would that be ok?" Due to the restricting neck brace Tomo couldn't nod, so she just grinned back in response.

Kaori's mother smiled back at her. "Well, all right, Tomo, it's a date. Ok, I'm going to go, but I want you two kids to behave while I'm gone now," she said pointing her finger in a joking manner. "Not too much funny stuff when I'm not here, now."

"Just get out of here already, mom," she said half jokingly, half embarrassed.

"Try not to wake up the other patients."

"Mom!"

"Oh, all right, dear, I'll leave you two alone now. Bye, Tomo." Tomo waved to her with the arm that had the I.V. inserted into her the wrist, and Kaori's mother happily waved back before she left out the door.

As soon as her mother was gone, the emotions Kaori had been holding back finally poured out, and the trickle of tears turned into a fountain. "Tomo!" Kaori yelled as she broke down over the hospital bed and buried her head into Tomo's chest. She continued sobbing as Tomo draped her arms over her. After a long while, Kaori finally looked up at her, the tears still pouring out.

Tomo took her hand and gently cleared the liquid away and then moved her lips again. _Don't cry._

"I'm crying because I'm so happy! Tomo, when you were in surgery I had never been so scared in my life. The surgeon told me you almost didn't make it. He said they lost vital signs from you for 3 seconds, but somehow you came back. I'm just so glad you did. I'm so grateful," she said beginning to break down again.

Tomo just smiled at her and cleared the tears off of her cheeks again. She then puckered her lips a couple of times.

"Oh, you want me to kiss you, huh?" Kaori asked now smirking, as she started running her fingers through Tomo's hair.

Tomo raised her eye brows twice to answer her yes.

"_Well_, you're not supposed to use your throat, but I guess your lips would be ok. Just promise me you'll take it easy, ok?"

Tomo raised her eyebrows again to signal agreement.

"Ok, here I come." Still leaning over the bed, Kaori slowly moved in with her lips until they pressed against Tomo's. Upon contact, Tomo's lips parted to let Kaori's bottom lip slide inside. Their lips remained that way, interlocked, as they both enjoyed the pleasant, warm, moist sensations of each other's mouths for what seemed like an eternity. Some time later, they finally ended the kiss and pulled their lips back apart.

Kaori not being satisfied yet, however, quickly pressed her lips against Tomo's again, and they kept on slowly re-entering each other's mouths, sucking on each other's lips, and touching tongues for a long string of shorter kisses.

Tomo then pointed to her one, un-bruised cheek, and Kaori smiled again knowing exactly what she wanted. First, she planted several wet kisses on Tomo's cheek. She then moved over with her own cheek and began nuzzling it against Tomo's. Kaori's cheek slid against the saliva from her kisses until it was evaporated by the friction. Then the only thing that could be felt was the warm sensation of skin rubbing on skin.

After Tomo finally had her fill of that favorite display of affection, she then took Kaori's face in her hands and guided it over to her own so that their foreheads and noses were pressing up against each other. They remained that way for a while, just enjoying each other's eyes and breath, both of them savoring every moment.

"Oh, I wish I could just crawl into this bed with you." Tomo then lifted the covers up and quirked her eye-brows again to welcome her in.

"Oh no, I couldn't," she said, more than a bit tempted.

They then heard the sound of the door creaking open. In walked a young, attractive female. She wore a white nurse's uniform which included a cap on top of long, dark hair, a short skirt which showed off much of her trim, panty-hosed thighs, and a low cut top that revealed a decent portion of her large breasts. In one hand she held a pail of soapy water and in the other a sponge. "Ok, Tomo, time for your sponge bath," she said playfully.

"_NOT OVER MY DEAD BODY_!"

The sound of shrieking could then be heard through out the halls of the hospital as the nurse ran for her life away from the jagged toothed demon.

To Be Continued


End file.
